The iPhone 3G Battery Stress Test/Comparison

As us new iPhone 3G users get our new phones, we are subject (to like any expensive product we buy) to analyze it, and if something is wrong, we lose sleep over it (yes that is the case for some people). Overtime, as you get used to the iPhone, all the little things will be forgotten about, or dimmered down compared to what they are now. Just something to keep in mind.

I currently have 3 iPhones in the house, 2 of them are the iPhone 3G. Due to all the poor battery comments, i decided to see how exactly the batterys last, and how it does compared to a 1st gen iPhone.

Now, since the majority of us who upgraded to the new iPhone had the first iPhone, the first gen iPhone battery life obviously doesn't keep it's charges as well as a new iPhone. The EDGE iPhone is not going to last as long because it constantly has to download from the network, at least 3G downloads it quicker, and the fact that the EDGE iPhone has been used for a while now.

The White iPhone is used for 3G. The black iPhone is used for GPS (with WiFi on), and the 1st gen iPhone is used for EDGE. (In order of pictures bellow, but you can tell by looking at them)

The file is a music file hosted on my website. It's exactly 1 hour in length, and the file size is 54.3MB. I started the song loading right at the beginning of the timing. The iPhone 3G will have the song completed sooner because it starts playing right away, while the EDGE iPhone takes a little bit to load it first. For the record, the iPhone 3G loaded the song in about 1/2 - 2/3 quicker than the EDGE iPhone. This comparison is fair because even though the EDGE phone is downloading longer than the 3G iPhone, and the 3G iPhone is just playing the song while the EDGE iPhone is downloading this. If we were to be out and about using our iPhones, this would be the same amount of load time and use time. So keep that in mind.

(Note that the EDGE iPhone isn't displaying it's usage correctly because i just unlocked/activated it, which i believe is a bug)

Now, for pictures.

Note: Also, if you would like me to compare different things like push, just ask!

Each picture has the 3G iPhone on top, GPS in middle (WITH WiFi TURNED ON), and EDGE on bottom. The point is to compare the battery icons.

(Click images to make bigger)

Both GPS / EDGE gave me the 20% warning at about 2:45

GPS / EDGE died at about 3:45

3G died at about 4:45

So in reality, what we get, is actually a better battery life because while using 3G we can be more productive. With our EDGE iPhones, it took longer to use Safari on the go, and since all the 1st gen iPhones are becoming older, they are losing charge.

In google maps can the new 3G phone still triangulate your location or is it completly reliant on GPS now?

Click to expand...

It's all GPS. ALTHOUGH i've had some instances when im indoors where it just keeps me in a blue circle, and no blue pin point. So even though there is no control, sometimes it can only rely on the locate me, but that is rare.

I think if you have time, you need to run one more test with a Sim, No 3g and Wifi on.

Use the wifi to stream the music. "No Sim" actually drains the battery faster, as my 1st gen iphone was down to 50% in 5 hours of pretty much doing nothing. (i have 2.0 firmware on the my old phone as well).

..... This is starting to make me feel like the new 2.0 firmware could be the real culprit.

I think if you have time, you need to run one more test with a Sim, No 3g and Wifi on.

Use the wifi to stream the music. "No Sim" actually drains the battery faster, as my 1st gen iphone was down to 50% in 5 hours of pretty much doing nothing. (i have 2.0 firmware on the my old phone as well).

..... This is starting to make me feel like the new 2.0 firmware could be the real culprit.

Click to expand...

Alright i can do that, just remember i only have a limited amount of iPhones to test at once

I am fairly sure that PUSH is the main culprit and it would be great if you could run tests to show this?

At the moment I am running overnight tests with my phone sleeping for about 9 hrs then using it sparingly throughout the day.
First time with PUSH on my phone it only just lasted the night and was nearly out of juice in the morning! This had wifi OFF bluetooth OFF and Location services OFF.

I am trying to find a good battery life by having the settings adjusted to something that I can work with.

I disabled PUSH and then switched on WIFI (Apple shows that you get better life with wifi than 3G so made sense if you were fetching data from your email box), FETCH was active on 30minutes and bluetooth was ON (although nothing connected). Looks like I have about 35 - 40% battery life still left this morning but need to carry on throughout the day....

MacRumors attracts a broad audience
of both consumers and professionals interested in
the latest technologies and products. We also boast an active community focused on
purchasing decisions and technical aspects of the iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Mac platforms.